Nuggets' Karl named NBA Coach of Year

Denver notched franchise records during season

DENVER -- Few times, if ever, has Nuggets coach George Karl had a chance to have more people hear him speak on one of the subjects he loves most.

Coaching.

And coaches.

And, specifically, how so many in the NBA are grinding it out and doing better jobs than they are given credit for. This season, with the immense criticism toward Karl that followed his team's first-round playoff loss to Golden State, he could count himself as one of those coaches.

But the league? Media who cover the league awarded him for a regular season well done on Wednesday, choosing him as the NBA Coach of the Year and giving him a platform -- a packed Pepsi Center news conference and national television audience -- to praise the profession.

"My friends in the fraternity of coaching have been a blessing," Karl said. "It's been a gift. It's been an honor to be a part of it, and now I have to stand for a year to be representative of the greatness of great coaches in the NBA. We are now at the stage where coaches are going to get fired, and some of you want me fired.

"But the truth of the matter is there is not very much bad coaching in the NBA. There's some bad situations that don't work. But from head coaches to assistant coaches to scouts, there are so many talented people that help every organization do their job at a high level. But unfortunately, half of us lose every night. It's very stressful, and expectations can be wildly out of control.

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Expectations for this Nuggets season ran the gamut. ESPN The Magazine picked the Nuggets to win the Western Conference. Karl felt all season his team was a top four seed in the conference. The Nuggets finished third, with an NBA franchise-record 57 victories, the fourth-best record in the NBA (57-25), a franchise record for home wins (38) and winning streaks of 15 games in a row and 23 at home.

Karl's critics have pounced not on his regular season record, oneof the best in the history of the sport, but his postseason mark. Only once in his nine years with Denver have the Nuggets made it out of the first round.

Karl totaled 404 points, including 62 first-place votes, from the panel of 121 sportswriters and broadcasters, to win his first ever coach of the year honor. Miami's Erik Spoelstra was second with 190 points, including 24 first-place votes.

But this is a regular-season award, and for the Nuggets it was a season that had so many twists and turns Karl said, "The personality of this season you could write a book on."

Karl said the award "somewhat" fires him up for next season, the last under his current contract. Asked about a potential extension of his contract, Karl deflected.

"That's a Masai (Ujiri)/Josh (Kroenke) question," said Karl of the Nuggets' top executives. "I've always said my desire is to end my career here. I also know that 10 years is a long time in one place, and the posse (to fire him) is getting big."

As far as milestones are concerned, Karl is positioned to become the Nuggets' all-time winningest coach next season. With 423 wins in 8½ seasons, he is 10 victories shy of breaking Doug Moe's franchise record of 432 wins. Moe is the franchise's only other winner of the NBA coach of the year award (1987-88).

Even as the NBA playoffs roll toward their halfway point, the coach of the year award, Karl said, is the unofficial start of next season.

"This is probably the first chapter of next year, is what we're looking at," Karl said of his Red Auerbach Trophy. "We've still probably got two or three weeks of depression and 'what-if' thoughts, and then hopefully the guys will get back into the gym and we'll start working them out for next year."

Ujiri to be named

executive of the year

Nuggets general manager Masai Ujiri will be named the NBA's executive of the year today, a source told The Denver Post on Wednesday night.

Ujiri, the first African-born GM in major American sports, put together Denver's roster, a squad that won 57 games, most in Nuggets NBA history.

On Wednesday, George Karl was named coach of the year, and last week forward Kenneth Faried won the league's citizenship of the year honor.

Benjamin Hochman

contributed to this report

NBA Coach of the Year voting

Selected by a panel of 121 sportswriters and broadcasters from the United States and Canada. Voting is on a 5-3-1 basis.

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